NLRB Orders Reinstatement Of Undocumented Bakery Workers

"The National Labor Relations Board has ordered a New York City bakery to give back jobs to several undocumented immigrants it axed over a decade ago for participating in protected labor activities, provided they can show they are allowed to work in the U.S.  A three-judge panel said conditional reinstatement of the workers’ jobs was an appropriate solution after Mezonos Maven Bakery Inc. hired the unauthorized workers and then illegally fired them when their tried to address abusive workplace conditions.  In its order, dated March 27, the NLRB said a 2002 ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court blocked it from issuing back pay to the workers because of their legal status at the time they were fired.  Reinstating their jobs is the “only means available to the Board to provide relief to the discriminatees and the principal means of deterring future unfair labor practices,” it wrote.  The case, which dates back to when the workers were fired in 2003, has been stuck in a years-long legal battle, circling from the NLRB to the Second Circuit and back to the labor relations board." - Matthew Bultman, Law360, Mar. 31, 2015.